Gameplay and Pushback: Attending to Student Concerns About Gaming in Learning and Literacy?
Jonathan Alexander & Wayne Hall (University of Cincinnati)
Gameplay and Pushback:
Attending to Student Concerns About Gaming in Learning and Literacy?
Jonathan Alexander & Wayne Hall (University of Cincinnati)
Recent scholarship on the educational use of video and computer gaming, such as James Paul Gee’s What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, have made bold claims about the positive impact of gaming on a variety of students’ abilities to think critically, communicate effectively, and problem solve collaboratively. Our presentation explores what happens in an Advanced Composition class in which students not only play computer games but also design them for other students to play. We contend that offering students the opportunity to research, argue about, and potentially design their own games gives them a powerful mode for critical reflection on the educational benefits of gaming.
The course proved surprising. While some students very much appreciated the potential role of computer and video games in forwarding a variety of critical thinking and literacy skills, others were much more sceptical, taking issue with several of Gee’s (among others’) points. The PowerPoint presentation we have assembled for the CCCC workshop takes viewers through the course experience and samples some of the students’ Game Day Presentations, in which their various views are described and discussed. We conclude with some recommendations for using gaming (as a subject for debate, contestation, and multi-modal play) in composition courses.
Gameplay and Pushback: Attending to Student Concerns About Gaming in Learning and Literacy?
Jonathan Alexander & Wayne Hall (University of Cincinnati)
Gameplay and Pushback:
Attending to Student Concerns About Gaming in Learning and Literacy?
Jonathan Alexander & Wayne Hall (University of Cincinnati)
Recent scholarship on the educational use of video and computer gaming, such as James Paul Gee’s What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, have made bold claims about the positive impact of gaming on a variety of students’ abilities to think critically, communicate effectively, and problem solve collaboratively. Our presentation explores what happens in an Advanced Composition class in which students not only play computer games but also design them for other students to play. We contend that offering students the opportunity to research, argue about, and potentially design their own games gives them a powerful mode for critical reflection on the educational benefits of gaming.
What Actually Happened:
The course proved surprising. While some students very much appreciated the potential role of computer and video games in forwarding a variety of critical thinking and literacy skills, others were much more sceptical, taking issue with several of Gee’s (among others’) points. The PowerPoint presentation we have assembled for the CCCC workshop takes viewers through the course experience and samples some of the students’ Game Day Presentations, in which their various views are described and discussed. We conclude with some recommendations for using gaming (as a subject for debate, contestation, and multi-modal play) in composition courses.